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My DRRM Kwentuhan

Growing up I never really had a chance to go around our community. Especially, in the “centro” (as they call). This is because our house is far away from the “centro”. This activity did not only let me tour our barangay but it also created an understanding of what our barangay disaster, risk and management measures are.

Barangay Bagong Sikat, my community, is situated in Science City of Muñoz province of Nueva Ecija. It is a small barangay with a population of around 2500. For this DRRM Kwentuhan I talked to our barangay captain, Mr. Celso Catabona.

Since our community is quite small we don’t really have a lot of disasters hitting us. Although, one thing that is common to our place is flooding. Some parts of our community are lower than the rest and near these areas are small rivers that cause floods during heavy rains. This may probably be the reason why some houses in our community have some sort of a “ramp” leading to their houses to avoid the water from going inside the house.

According to Mr. Catabona, another main reason why flood is common to our place is because of improper segregation and disposal of garbage. He said that some citizens do not throw their garbage properly. They put it in rivers. This cause the obstruction of the free flow of water because the garbage clogs the drains. As an effort to help scale down flooding in our community, the barangay officials have conducted continuous cleaning drive. He showed me pictures of how much garbage they are able to pull from the rivers monthly. They’ve also started talking to households within the vicinity about proper garbage disposal, as well as put signs around the area. Our barangay captain said that the lack of discipline from these citizens is one of the reasons why garbage from rivers cannot be eliminated.

So how do they know that flood may happen? Based on my interview with the barangay captain, I learned that our community work closely with the City Disaster, Risk, Reduction Council in these instances. By working with the CDRRM, our community will be able to gather relevant information about incoming typhoons and other disasters and calamities that will affect our community. This information can also help our community in preparing for these disasters and calamities. As a means of warning, they’ve painted electric posts to serve as flood level depth posts. During times of typhoon, they monitor the water level in the rivers to make sure that they are able to evacuate the nearby residents in case of flooding. As a requirement, the barangay have assigned an evacuation center and prepared a fund for needed resources during these times.

Our province is known to be the “Rice Granary of the Philippines” so there are a lot of farmers who are affected by flooding. In our barangay, most citizens own a farmland so when it comes to floods and typhoons we are definitely affected. I’ve also noticed in my walk that some farmlands are located near the rivers so it’s easier for rain water to gush over the crops.

The barangay’s DRRM Plan has identified the areas that will be mostly affected by disasters and calamities such as floods, typhoons and earthquake. With the help from the CDRRM, they have prepared for resources and facilities needed during these times. This includes tents and fund for food.

Our community is not an exception to national disasters and problems such as earthquake and drug abuse. The barangay has prepared and took action for all these but in this blog I only highlighted the main problems that have affected our community.

What I’ve learned from this experience is that our community is suffering from our own acts. A plastic wrapper that one throws in the river will have a bigger effect when we think of every citizen throwing one plastic wrapper. The barangay can do as much as prepare for disasters and remind the citizens on what and what not to do. But it is still up to us if we will help our community in preventing a bigger effect of disasters and calamities to us.